The show was only so-so tonight. Somehow Storm and Edge crammed more reversals and wrestling into a 45 second melee than the entire tag team "main event" debacle (highlights of this being Booker crotching himself on Austin's back during the sidekick, and Bossman almost falling on his head because of his inability to complete a BACK BODY DROP . HHH's return was good (albeit drawn out-ish), and I was pleased to see Angle back in his humorous dorky heel mode tonight. Other than that, nothing to write home about, keeping my fingers crossed for a Dudleys/Tazz and Spike ECW style gore fest at the Rumble, but tonight the Rumble finally begun to take shape, and it actually doesn't look too unimpressive.

Show seemed kind of blah for HHH's return (of course I was hoping Benoit would appear and give HHH a german suplex off the top rope while he was posing...so what do I know?) Not that it was bad, it just didn't seem big enough to me.

Thoughts...

-Blood Flair ruled!

-Could have shaved some time off HHH and given Edge and Storm a little more time. Best 45 seconds Evar! Could have been so much more...

-Good to see the Titles off the Duds for a little bit. Hope it leads to flaming tables...but I doubt it. Taz/Spike doesn't really click for me either, but it's different. Hopefully they don't go "Gunn/Polumbo" on us. It would bring a new meaning to "Survive if I let you..."

- I don't mind seeing a return of HHH vs. Angle, should equal good matches. And he did give HHH a german suplex, not exactly what I wanted...but close.

-Is it just me or was that DDT Trish took the most vicious thing I've seen on TV in a while? She was all sorts of bent out of shape. Jazz's attack totally saved that segment. I was fearing Gunn/Polumbo coming out in T-shirts. It shouldn't have been the next to last bit, though.

-HHH's delts (or whatever you call those underarm muscles) are so freaking huge it's scary! There's not way he can put his arms down staight.

JEEEZ. I waited to come back to this? Thumbs up for Raw. Thumbs down for the board. Does that mean thumbs in the middle? Just call me The Rick.

First the downside.........Wienerville?HAHAHA our lord and master's condensending attitude now carries over into complete bitch mode. But that's not all. Now there is a EXP system in place to reward endless shitty posting! Order now. We are not worthy. You too can be the rocking, walking, pissing, jobber champeen with only 3000 Undertaker bashing posts. And you get extra for starting 17 new Vince is an egomaniac threads.

Moving right along. Raw kicked. I will leave the recaps to Jesus Z but as usual you either get it or you don't. I could go on about how cool it was to see hints of ECW in the booking and that even though you knew HHH vs. Angle was where they were going IT STILL ROCKED. The Cowardly Lionheart and Nick (Ralphus) Patrick will be a lot of fun. Just cause you see it coming doesn't mean it's still not a good thing.

Jackson will be appearing at Giggles all week long, boys and ghouls. As for Blah Is Snore...

- Yet another booker puts himself over Flair once again. Ric Flair, why couldn't you stay retired? Why must you degradate yourself so? Oh wait, I know why. You're a spotlight addict. I'm so sorry. Be nice seeing you job to the NCiH Stunner at the Rumble.

- Test wrestled RVD. I barely remember the match, because there was very little noteworthy in it. Wasn't RVD in the upper card a couple months ago? Hell, wasn't TEST feuding with Rocky a couple weeks ago? Could somebody please remind the bookers what the hell they're doing?

- Trish. Terri. Titties. Later on.

- Team Bodacious vs. somebody... I don't remember, cause I don't pay attention to Billy Gunn 'matches'. When was Billy Gunn in the upper card last? What about Chuck Palumbo? I bet Test and RVD feel real good right now.

- Time to play the 15 minute entrance! Yay, HHH is back, he's gassed, and he's roiding his way through 29 other jobbers to with the Royal Rumble! Kurt Angle disagrees and, after some token offense, eats a Pedicure. Sendem home happy! HHH wins the Rumble, BTW.

Originally posted by Jackson JEEEZ. I waited to come back to this? Thumbs up for Raw. Thumbs down for the board. Does that mean thumbs in the middle? Just call me The Rick.

First the downside.........Wienerville?HAHAHA our lord and master's condensending attitude now carries over into complete bitch mode. But that's not all. Now there is a EXP system in place to reward endless shitty posting! Order now. We are not worthy. You too can be the rocking, walking, pissing, jobber champeen with only 3000 Undertaker bashing posts. And you get extra for starting 17 new Vince is an egomaniac threads.

- Yet another booker puts himself over Flair once again. Ric Flair, why couldn't you stay retired? Why must you degradate yourself so? Oh wait, I know why. You're a spotlight addict. I'm so sorry. Be nice seeing you job to the NCiH Stunner at the Rumble.

Umm...no? They had no match. McMahon took a cheap shot on him with a weapon. At the Rumble, I am sure Vince will have Flair win. He may be dumd, but he isn't that stupid. It's called a...wait for this...a FEUD! Because watching Flair beat McMahon's brains in for a month before beating would lead to such a great, intense, brutal...one-sided feud.

- Test wrestled RVD. I barely remember the match, because there was very little noteworthy in it. Wasn't RVD in the upper card a couple months ago? Hell, wasn't TEST feuding with Rocky a couple weeks ago? Could somebody please remind the bookers what the hell they're doing?

So, because they didn't fight two established main eventers, their push is obviously done I guess. So if the Rock ever fights a midcarder again, or Angle sells for one, they might as well just retire then and there. RVD, Test and any other guy new to the top of the card are not going to fight former world champions every show.

- Team Bodacious vs. somebody... I don't remember, cause I don't pay attention to Billy Gunn 'matches'. When was Billy Gunn in the upper card last? What about Chuck Palumbo? I bet Test and RVD feel real good right now.

- Yet another booker puts himself over Flair once again. Ric Flair, why couldn't you stay retired? Why must you degradate yourself so? Oh wait, I know why. You're a spotlight addict. I'm so sorry. Be nice seeing you job to the NCiH Stunner at the Rumble.

Umm...no? They had no match. McMahon took a cheap shot on him with a weapon. At the Rumble, I am sure Vince will have Flair win. He may be dumd, but he isn't that stupid. It's called a...wait for this...a FEUD! Because watching Flair beat McMahon's brains in for a month before beating would lead to such a great, intense, brutal...one-sided feud.-- DT Warren Sapp

BucsFan: Have I ever told you how much I love you? In a non Billy Gunn kinda way, of course

And the good thing, McMahon didn't have one of his henchmen come out to attack Flair, in true Flair fashion he used a dirty trick to get the upperhand..

I am sure we will more devious tricks being used and something special to actually make the match interesting..Despite Flair being Flair you cannot expect the match to be a high caliber wrestling match. Something will happen...

*grumble* Being in Europe, and getting to see the show after the person who tapes it for me watches it means I have to wait for 2 weeks before I can jump out of my seat for this all...

The Book/Bossman vs The Faces was not as bad as I thought it would be. The Book got some offense (even a Bookend), didn't get buried and the Bossman's time in the ring was limited. One thing that I HATED was The Rock's offense. I remember when his offense consisted of more than punch, punch, punch. It was ridiculous. I was hating that match because of it. But then the Book saved the day!!! Sure he blew one spot, but come on...that was a fast-paced nonstop match that was truncated because of HHH's pose-fest at the end of the show. It wasn't as bad as The Rock selling The Bossman's phantom kick to the ribs.

I am a Book Mark (hehe), but even though his team lost, I feel like that match gave him some credibility. But they have to get rid of Bossman. Put him with Chuck and Gunn, that would be funny as hell. He could be trying to help them as a manager, all along trying to figure out if they are gay or not.

January 4th 1999 - The day WCW injected itself with 10 gallons of Liquid Anthrax...AKA...The day Hogan "Defeated" Nash to win the WCW title in front of 40,000.

1) That MSG crowd, as always, is one of the best WWF crowds in the USA. New York and Chicago are diehard WWF towns. Though I heard the MSG crowd was a bit disrespectful "What?"ing during the Anthem. Austin created a monster.

2) I heard HHH made that new logo of his.... but I'm wondering if I should call him "Hunter Hearst Nazi" from now on? The return was awesome and I'm happy they didn't choose Jericho to be his sacrifical lamb.

3) Spike and Tazz are the Tag Champs? Wow. At least it shakes up the Tag ranks. Well, I see them losing it to the Ambiguously Gay Duo anyway in the near future - so there you go. Chuck Palumbo disturbs me greatly with that dye job of his.

4) Eww... Flair was gushing tonight.

5) I don't get the logic in jobbing Lance Storm in 2 minutes - but then again he really doesn't have any heat anyway. Even still, though, 2 minutes???

6) No Nash. No Steph.

7) Where's Kane, BTW?

8) Jazz's DDT on Trish = SICK. Tazz's T-Bone on Buh-Buh Ray = SICK. I hope Buh-Buh didn't get a concussion with his head bouncing off the table edge like that.

Well, subtract HHH's return and you have a pretty subpar Raw. And if history teaches us anything Smackdown will be much better.

HHH's pseudo-Iron Cross logo was kind of odd looking when I first caught it. With the denim meets leather jacket he wears, throw one of those pointy German helmets on him and give him a bike and he can have a Wild Rebels biker gimmick.

Was he that gigantic before? It looked like Angle was suplexing a bear or something. Angle was the man the whole night. He's kind of like the Frank Burns of the WWF. The whole exchange with Christian, with the stuff about tearing his own quad that morning and the way he blows off whatever anyone else is saying if it's not about him is always great. He's probably the best guy for this spot, because Angle seems to be able to lose to anyone without moving up or down too much.

I'm glad that it wasn't Jericho, even though I was positive we'd get an "I DISPUTE-UH!" from HHH...though, the thought of a paranoid Jericho running out to clip HHH and stomping on the bad leg crossed my mind. That would have been major heat...people jumping over the barricades to chase him out of the building heat. Maybe Angle can do that and they can have HHH show that the leg is still OK on the next show to keep building up their rivalry. SmackDown should be interesting.